Pollux Black
'Pollux Phineas Black '(3 Mar 1902 - 5 Oct 1990) was a pure-blood wizard, the eldest child of Cygnus Black II and Violetta Bulstrode, the brother of Cassiopeia Black, Marius Black, and Dorea Black, the husband of Irma Crabbe, the father of Walburga Black, Alphard Black, and Cygnus Black III, the grandfather of Sirius Black, Regulus Black, Altair Black, Aquila Black, Bellatrix Lestrange, Andromeda Tonks, and Narcissa Malfoy, the great-grandfather of Draco Malfoy, Nymphadora Tonks and Delphini, and the great-great-grandfather of Teddy Lupin and Scorpius Malfoy. Biography Early life (1900s) Pollux was born in Tisbury, Wiltshire, at Black Manor, to Cygnus Black II (1879 - 1943) and Violetta Black née Bulstrode (1880 - 1972). He grew up as an only child, as his other three siblings were born when he was away at Hogwarts. Pollux enjoyed a very social childhood. He was instructed in the ways of his Noble House, and studied several languages, including French, German, Latin, and Mermish. He learned calligraphy, astronomy, and many other subjects in his early childhood. That being said, he was also a very socialised child. His parents often hosted get-togethers at Black Manor and were often invited to other pure-bloods' homes. Hogwarts years (1910s) Pollux received his Hogwarts letter in the summer of 1913. He was believed to have purchased a wand made of cypress and dragon heartstring at Ollivander's Wand Shop some time before attending. He boarded the Hogwarts Express in London with his cousin Arcturus, who would be a first year as well, and they shared a compartment with Arcturus's cousin Louise Moore, who was also a first year. Louise reportedly planned to make Slytherin to prove to her aunt Hesper that she was worth spending time with, because she was a half-blood. Pollux was sorted into Slytherin House with his cousin Arcturus, while Arcturus's cousin Louise was, inevitably, put into Hufflepuff. His cousin Arcturus and she hoped to remain friends but as they aged, Louise and the rest of her family were shunned from the Blacks, and they refused to consort with each other. Pollux shared a dormitory with Ivor Greengrass, Cyrus Macmillan, and his cousin Arcturus. Pollux became close with Cyrus Macmillan over the years. The Macmillans traditionally were a house divided, with one branch drifting toward the darker of magics, while the other side tried to remain as light as they could. Cyrus and his sister Melania were from the darker of branches, the children of Ambrose Macmillan and his wife Blodwen Macmillan (née Carrow), and were found acceptable to befriend. Pollux also became close to Ivor Greengrass, who was the son of Ivor Greengrass Snr and his wife Ottoline Greengrass (née Prewett). The House of Greengrass has always been a neutral family and Ivor proved to be a very good friend to Pollux over the years. Engagement and marriage (1920s) Pollux had been enjoying a casual relationship with a witch called Irma Crabbe in his seventh year at school when she expressed her idea of a courtship. Pollux decided to agree, and it was arranged by their parents. They married in June 1922, after a long engagement. Three years later, their first child was born on 25 May, 1925. They christened her Walburga Irma Black, and for some time enjoyed their time as a three person family unit. Pollux had gone into politics and he was high ranked in the Ministry of Magic by the time that their second child, Alphard Rigel Black, was born on 11 July, 1929. Raising children (1930s - 1940s) Their third child, Cygnus Phineas Black, was born on 10 October, 1931. Pollux tried to raise Walburga, Alphard, and Cygnus in the same way that he was raised. Irma instructed them in German and Pollux instructed his children in French and Latin, at first, then delegating those responsibilities to a tutor when he no longer had the time. Walburga was taught to paint and had numerous other hobbies, while Cygnus liked to play on his broom. Alphard liked collecting small creatures which he kept in jars. He also liked to fish, with magic, that is. Pollux never understood Alphard's strange obsession with the outdoors but attempted to keep an open mind when his son would bring something crawly into the house. It was usually then exterminated by his wife Irma, who couldn't stand such things. Role as a grandfather (1950s-1960s) Cygnus was the first to marry out of Pollux's children: in 1949, he was arranged to marry the daughter of Irma's favourite maternal first cousin, Lucinda Rosier (née Yaxley). The witch's name was Druella Rosier (1930 - 1994), and though they were second cousins, Cygnus despised her. He tried all that he could to get out of the marriage but his mother insisted that they would make a lovely pair. Druella was a very pretty blonde witch and Cygnus eventually gave up. Pollux's first grandchild was born on 13 December, 1951, and the baby was christened Bellatrix Druella Black. The next year, his second quickly followed: Andromeda Olga, born 29 December 1952. Having satisfied the terms of their agreement, but not having produced a boy, the couple were obliged to try again, but the third would meet the limit of the agreement. Narcissa Anastasia was born on 19 July, 1955. Pollux's daughter Walburga married his cousin Arcturus's son Orion, on the suggestion of Pollux. Orion, Arcturus's son and the Heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, originally did not want to marry anyone, and there may have been some wrangling on Pollux and Arcturus's part to get him to agree. Arcturus likely threatened his son with arranging him to marry a decidedly more unpleasant witch, and because Orion and Walburga had known each other since childhood, Orion was eventually forced to agree. Walburga, on the other hand, had always been infatuated with her second cousin, which Pollux had found odd. However, Walburga was nearly thirty-four when they entered the courtship, which was considered late for a society witch. It was entirely possible that she had been waiting for Orion, who was nearly thirty and still unmarried. Orion and Walburga married on 28 June, 1958. Much like Orion's parents before him, the ceremony was heavily covered in wizarding media. At this time, the Blacks were the wealthiest wizarding family in Britain, and Arcturus Black, having taken on the Headship in 1952 upon the passing of his father, Sirius II, was the wealthiest man in the British wizarding world. Pollux was overall very pleased with the match. Pollux's fourth grandchild was born on 3 November, 1959. He was christened Sirius Orion, though Orion had become a father somewhat unwillingly. Sirius Orion Black's birth was celebrated in the Daily Prophet and many childhood photographs were shared with newspapers by Melania, Orion's mother. Orion and Walburga's second child was born, on 23 April 1961. They christened him Regulus Arcturus, both in honour of Pollux's cousin Arcturus's brother, Regulus II (who had recently passed away in 1959), and Arcturus himself. By this time, Pollux's son Alphard was not married, and expressed no intention to. Pollux personally had always thought that Alphard, nicknamed "Alphie," by some of the kids (namely Sirius and Regulus) was a bit special. Alphard had taken up the mantle of restoring one of the old Black family properties- a small light keeper's cottage on the Isle of Skye, and had moved out of the manor in Tisbury to live a new life of seclusion out in the wilderness. Alphard was also ill with Haemophilia B and preferred not to pass that down to any children, if he had any. It was suspected that the disease had taken root with the Crabbes and a specific branch of Rosiers, and by extension, Greengrasses, which was the direct maternal line that Pollux's wife Irma had come from. Druella Rosier, by consequence, was also a member of this direct maternal line, and they would later learn that she had made at least her daughter Narcissa a carrier. In 1963, Cygnus and Druella attempted to duel each other to the death. It was not known what caused the intense firestorm of anger that was unleashed, only that they could not stay together anymore. Andromeda, then eleven, and Narcissa, aged eight, bore witness to the duel which left Druella in hospital for a week. They separated after that, citing irreconcilable differences. Druella left the manor and all three of her children and did not even demand to see them. Narcissa, eight, was heartbroken. Andromeda, eleven, and already a witness of the fact that her mother was an abusive terrifying person, was thankful, but relieved, and Bellatrix, twelve, had no idea what had happened and came home for Christmas to find their mother gone and their father sulking in his room. Bellatrix was always Druella's favourite, and it was no secret that she was devastated. She became prone to throwing insane tantrums and demanding that she go live with her mother, who would teach her dark magic, but even Druella didn't want to see her and Bellatrix didn't understand. At Christmas, 1966, Alphard invited Sirius, seven, and Regulus, five, to his island to stay in his cottage in Skye, where there was a terrible storm and Orion and Walburga returned without speaking to each other. There had seemed to be an incident on the island where Walburga endangered Sirius's life because she didn't know what she was doing. Orion had gone out to look for her, and Alphard fished all three of them out from the mudflats with his boat. Pollux wasn't sure what to make of two very odd situations, one of which tore his son's family apart, and one nearly destroyed his daughter's. First Wizarding War (1970s - 1981) The early effects of First Wizarding War had taken hold around Pollux: a wizard by the name of Voldemort had declared himself a Dark Lord, taking advantage of a charged political climate to do so. In 1968, Nobby Leach left office for mysterious health reasons, leading to a conspiracy theory that he had been poisoned by his Muggle-prejudice advisor Abraxas Malfoy. He was then replaced as Minister Of Magic by Eugenia Jenkins, who, like her predecessor, was sympathetic to issues of social justice. Squibs then began marching for their rights, which spurred pure-blood supremacists to riot. Throughout the 1960s, with various minority groups demanding to be treated as equals, many of the old, elite pure-blood houses, to which all of the Death Eaters belonged, increasingly felt that their very way of life was being threatened. Many pure-blood supremacists who did not join the ranks of the Death Eaters nonetheless gave their wholehearted support to Voldemort's cause in secret even still. Pollux's grandson, Sirius, received his Hogwarts letter in July 1971. However, on 1 September, 1971, Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor, an act which greatly offended most of the family. Pollux's wife Irma and his daughter Walburga were the most angered by Sirius's sorting, and wanted to disown him, but Arcturus, the Head, having succeeded his father in 1952, talked her down and refused to do so. Arcturus was certainly disappointed that Sirius hadn't made the noble house of Slytherin, but his approach was pragmatic, and the family took no action. Arcturus saw Pollux's daughter as extreme and told her so. Pollux agreed with him. As Arcturus's word as Head was law, the Black family continued to remain silent while Sirius, struggling with a thousand year old legacy, befriended blood-traitors and half-bloods in Gryffindor House. In 1969, Voldemort began to gather support and lead marches in wizarding areas, and the group called themselves the "Knights of Walpurgis" in the early years, and preached ideas about pureblood supremacy. Pollux kept to seclusion, while his family, unbeknownst to him, had been radicalised by the chaos. Pollux's daughter, Walburga, began to say that the Knights of Walpurgis had the right ideas at the dinner table. When his wife Irma began preaching his ideals, Pollux found out and was extremely blasé. Voldemort launched a revolution against the British Ministry Of Magic with the intention of toppling it and creating a new world order run by pure-bloods with Muggles kept in utter bondage servitude and Lord Voldemort himself as the immortal ruler for all time. To achieve these ends, the Death Eaters and their allies (including the particularly destructive Giants) began openly carrying out attacks on Muggles for sport and to show chaos. Cleaning up these attacks, healing survivors, modifying memories, searching for the perpetrators, and attempting to prevent future attacks occupied more and more of the Ministry's time and attention. As their confidence grew, the Death Eaters began targeting Muggle-born and blood traitor witches and wizards as well, torturing and sometimes killing their victims, which shocked wizarding society. Other "inferior" magical beings such as house-elves (who were treated like vermin) and Goblins (a family of which was slaughtered) also suffered under their reign of terror. To inspire yet more terror, the Death Eaters would cast the Dark Mark in the sky over every house or scene that they killed at. Pollux's granddaughter, Bellatrix, decided to join the organisation in 1975. Voldemort had taken Bellatrix under his personal wing, sharing with her his personal-secret knowledge of the Dark Arts; and inspiring in Bellatrix a delusional-psychotic attraction bordering on loving obsession, which Voldemort never honestly returned. That same year, Pollux either read about or witnessed Eugenia Jenkins get ousted as Minister Of Magic, and get replaced by Harold Minchum, a hardliner who placed more Dementors around Azkaban. In addition, ruthless Council Of Magical Law Head Judge Bartemius "Barty" Crouch Senior rose rapidly through the Ministry's ranks until he also became the Head of the Department Of Magical Law Enforcement. Minchum and Crouch then began to make serious headway, though the anonymous and elusive Death Eaters still retained the advantage. The next year, in 1976, Pollux's grandson Sirius ran away from home. His cousin Arcturus visited Grimmauld Place himself, and told Pollux how he witnessed his daughter Walburga holding a candle to her son's depiction on the Black family tapestry, an artefact that has been around since the 16th century. Arcturus had tried to convinced Walburga that Sirius would come back to them, but he had been blind to the real issues that had been clouding Grimmauld Place, and was unable to get through. Arcturus reportedly had a conversation with his son, Orion, who informed him that Sirius had become increasingly rebellious over the last few years, flaunting his Gryffindor house affiliation and disdain for his family's pure-blood values. Arcturus had then realised that he could not blame his daughter-in-law for what she did, but maintained his refusal to disown him from the house completely, as that option was irreversible and permanent, and he still held an old man's naive hope that Sirius would come back to them. Pollux had no choice other than to follow Arcturus in the matter. Pollux's other grandson, Regulus, aged 15, became the defacto Black heir following Sirius's flight. Pollux returned to Wiltshire and time passed. Regulus, who was a Slytherin, and a child that was often overlooked by all those except his parents, though he had wonderful accomplishments, was apprehensive at first. He, too, hoped that Sirius would return, but as time went on and that became less and less likely, he began to take up the mantle of the Black family heir. Walburga arranged for his cousin Bellatrix to take him on a Death Eater rendezvous, where he met many pure-bloods who had all been inspired and radicalised by the Dark Lord Voldemort. Pollux did not have any idea of this until Regulus announced proudly during a visit to his residence that he had joined the Dark Lord. At first, Pollux was not sure of what to feel. He was ultimately pleased and thanked Regulus for doing what he could not. The war had picked up and the amount of missing witches and wizards that were not pure-bloods was climbing into the hundreds by 1978. Pollux had seen conflict before- namely the Global Wizarding War, during which he had raised children. He began to feel that his grandson had made a mistake taking a side, and while he had little influence over his granddaughter Bellatrix, felt that she had erred as well. Arcturus visited and explained that Regulus and Bellatrix's choices officially allied the House of Black with the Dark Lord Voldemort, and because Arcturus had some influence over his daughter-in-law, but not total control, Walburga had donated a great amount of money to the Death Eater's cause, which was money of her own, and actions of her own doing. Pollux simply told Arcturus that he was being asinine, and the family would do fine in Voldemort's "glorious revolution". Regulus, in fact, had realised that he had erred in joining the Dark Lord. He was sixteen when he joined, and for some time, naively believed that he was going to participate in the cleansing of the Wizarding World. He had been inspired by his cousin Bellatrix and threatened by his mother, and his father did not care about him enough to stop him. But a month after he joined, he quickly became incredibly disenchanted with the cause's insane and brutal leader. In February 1979, Voldemort requested the use of Regulus's personal house-elf Kreacher, and then callously left him to die. When Kreacher managed survive and to return home over Valentine's, Regulus deduced that Voldemort had created a Horcrux and then attempted to destroy it in April, over the Easter holidays. This failed and resulted in his violent death at the hands of the Inferi, though he did manage to replace the locket with a fake and entrust the real Horcrux to Kreacher. Pollux nor the rest of the family knew about any of this. When Regulus went missing, like so many others had, Pollux stayed at Grimmauld Place with his weepy wife and daughter, who made posters for the Daily Prophet. Regulus had not yet finished school, and had not even sat his N.E.W.T.s before he died at seventeen- ten days before his eighteenth birthday. Walburga then turned to her husband for comfort, after her parents left, but even he had fallen on the drink. Pollux's cousin Arcturus was devastated and decided to visit their grandson Sirius to tell him personally, hoping that the sadness of Regulus's death would reconcile him enough to come back to the family. However, Sirius refused. At nineteen years old, he was a year out of Hogwarts, and had already joined the Order of the Phoenix, an organisation headed by Albus Dumbledore to stop Voldemort. He was on the other side of the war and had already been living away from the Blacks for nearly three years. He would not come back just because the spare had died. He would not come back to be under Walburga's roof. Arcturus told Pollux how he had suspected, in 1976, when Sirius ran away, that Walburga had been physically abusing him, and their conversation near the end of April, 1979, confirmed it. However, Arcturus couldn't make Sirius return by force, and the two of them parted ways. Pollux then brought up the incident at Alphard's cottage in Skye, and together, the two of them deduced that there had indeed been some oddness there, but since Sirius was lost to them now they could no longer try. There was yet another bombshell to be discovered. Near the end of April, 1979, Walburga discovered that she was pregnant. She had not touched her husband for several years before that, and Orion ordered her to get rid of it, but Walburga said that she wouldn't. Granted, because Sirius would not come back and their younger son had passed away, the Black family could have used another heir, but it is likely that their third child was not intended for this purpose. Rather, the whole thing was more likely an accident. Pollux and Irma, as well as Arcturus and Melania, were skeptical and expected that due to the stress and grief in losing Regulus, the foetus would not survive. However, it did. Walburga gave birth to a baby boy, who she named Altair Regulus, on 7 January 1980. Pollux, Irma, Arcturus, and Melania welcomed the new life with more skepticism, as they believed that Walburga and Orion would not be fit to raise another child. Orion was already severely depressed and had been for quite some time, and although Walburga threw herself into raising Altair, she was also somewhat of an alcoholic at the time. The war raged around them. On 12 January, 1980, Minister Minchum was also removed from office due to his failure to end the war and was immediately replaced with Millicent Bagnold. The Order of the Phoenix, a secret organisation created to fight the Dark Lord, suffered badly and skirmishes picked up at a rapid pace. Pollux nor Irma cared to hear Sirius's name on the radio, and they may have secretly hoped they would hear his name, if it was any consolation over Regulus's death. A second child, their fourth in total, was conceived by Walburga and Orion in March. When it happened the second time, in March 1980, Arcturus understandably put his foot down, believing that Walburga had coerced Orion into conceiving two more children through magic- likely the Imperius Curse or something similar. Pollux refused to believe that his daughter had done any of those things and demanded an explanation, and there was an explosive argument. Pollux had also considered that the first time may have well and truly been an accident, but after Walburga announced that she was, again, expecting, just two months after she had given birth to Altair, Arcturus was furious. He sent Walburga to stay with her parents, Pollux and Irma, along with the baby, and ordered his son to tell him whether he had planned any of this with Walburga. Orion had not, and seemed confused and not entirely lucid at the time. Arcturus deduced that Walburga had definitely done something, perhaps in desperation, grief, or madness, and along with Pollux, determined that it would be best to keep them apart. Pollux's seventh grandchild, and only granddaughter, Aquila Walburga, was born on 4 November, 1980, in the same year as Altair, though the two children were almost eleven months apart. She was born only a day after Sirius had been, though twenty-one years after the fact. Orion stayed at Grimmauld Place for some time, but Walburga returned there when Aquila was but a few days old. The newborn baby was thought to have looked like Orion and Sirius by Melania, who quickly fell in love with her only granddaughter. Altair, however, was close to the spitting image of Regulus and Pollux and Irma adored him, and most all did, including, begrudgingly, Arcturus and Orion. Though Orion hadn't wanted either of them, much like he hadn't wanted Sirius and Regulus at first, he began to seem happier, slowly. Save for Pollux's granddaughter, Bellatrix, who was still violently attacking muggles under the Mark of Lord Voldemort, and Narcissa, who had married a Death Eater and had a child of her own (Draco, born 5 June 1980), the Blacks retreated into seclusion as the war continued to rage around them. They watched as the war entered its most desperate phase in the early months of 1981. Arcturus and Melania kept an eye on the papers, and tuned into the radio that listed the fates of many Order members. They learned that Gideon Prewett and Fabian Prewett were killed by Antonin Dolohov, and Dorcas Meadowes was murdered by Voldemort himself in January. Benjy Fenwick, Pollux learned, was killed by his granddaughter, Bellatrix Lestrange, Evan Rosier, and Julius Jerome; and so brutally mutilated that only bits of him were recovered, in June. Meanwhile, in the Ministry, Barty Crouch Senior issued an edict in July 1981, giving Ministry Aurors full permission to employ the use of the Unforgivable Curses against their enemies. A massive Ministry campaign, spearheaded and led by Alastor Moody, Kingsley Shackelbolt, Otto Cattermole, and Frank Longbottom; ensued, immediately turining the tide of the war against the Death Eaters. They initially focused their efforts on resisting the giants, killing many of them with the Killing Curse, and wiping out entire tribes until they forced the survivors to go into hiding. The Ministry began to identify and apprehend Death Eaters. Auror and Order member Alastor Moody became legendary for his successes, arresting and capturing Igor Karkaroff, along with many other supporters of the Dark Lord, and also killing Evan Rosier when he resisted arrest, although losing a chunk of his nose in the process. Antonin Dolohov also met his capture and imprisonment at the hands of Magical Law Enforcement Squad and Corban Yaxley, one of Voldemort's earliest followers, was captured and sent to Azkaban as well. On 31 October, 1981, Voldemort traveled to the Godric's Hollow with the intention of murdering the Potter family for unknown reasons, and there met his downfall. Pollux was shocked, the rest of the Blacks were shocked, and the entire Wizarding World was shocked when, leaderless, Death Eaters began to fall left and right. : "To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!" : —Celebrations going on at the end of the war and the destiny forced upon the young Harry Potter That same night, news of Voldemort's downfall and apparent death spread like wildfire throughout all of Great Britain; with monumental celebrations breaking out all across the country so strenuously that numerous large-scale breaches of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy were noticed by the Muggle international media. This was excused by Minister Bagnold, who asserted the war-weary wizarding community's "inalienable right to party." Though some people, like Barty Crouch Snr, claimed the celebrating got out of hand and became childish and ridiculous. n the aftermath of Voldemort's shockingly abrupt defeat and subsequent disappearance without a trace, many were skeptical that he was really dead. Aurors, Order members, and Ministry officials searched at home and abroad for any sign of him but found none. Although they eventually came to the conclusion that Voldemort had truly been defeated and was dead, many Death Eaters were still at large and considered a huge threat. Pollux was entirely unsurprised when Bellatrix was arrested along with her husband and brother-in-law on 2 November 1981, for torturing an Auror and his wife into insanity. He did not attempt to help her, for he felt that she deserved what she got, and had always viewed her from the age of twenty as a somewhat psychotic menace. Pollux visited Grimmauld Place that night with his wife Irma and spent time with his younger grandchildren, grateful, but not entirely reassured, because it appeared that with the end of Voldemort, the conflict was almost over. If Bellatrix could have been arrested, then it truly meant it was over. However, another event that took place within that week was enough to shock Pollux and Irma to their core. Their grandson, whom they still cared about, though he was separated from the family, had been arrested and thrown into Azkaban, in a cell next to their beloved granddaughter Bellatrix for betraying the Potters to Voldemort as well as on the count of the murder of twelve muggles and a wizard by the name of Peter Pettigrew. Walburga and Orion were left shocked and horrified that they had disowned a son that had ended up supporting all the "right" values in the end. Walburga, at least, could have been proud of him, but she also did not want to acknowledge him at all. Pollux and Irma were comforted by the fact that Sirius had finally chosen to come back to them, if not physically. They were confused, however, when Pollux came to visit him in Azkaban (Arcturus had somehow refused, and neither Melania, Orion, Walburga, nor Irma were going anywhere near ''that place), he told him to "fuck off." Pollux could have begun to suspect that his grandson was truly innocent of the crimes he was thrown into Azkaban for, but he did not think that far ahead, and simply believed that his grandson was just being his grandson, as colloquially rude as always. Appearance Pollux had brown hair and grey eyes, one typical trait of the House of Bulstrode and the other of the House of Black. Much like the rest of the Black family, he was tall, well-built, and darkly handsome. He did not resemble the Bulstrodes much in his face. Etymology Like many members of the Black family, the name ''Pollux comes from a star. It is the brightest star in the constellation Gemini. The name refers to Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Zeus and Leda in Greek mythology. The name is traditionally thought to mean "much wine", since astrologers associate Pollux with prosperity and celebration with wine. Pollux's sister Cassiopeia was named after a constellation.Category:Characters Category:Slytherins Category:Individuals Sorted in 1913 Category:House of Black Category:Pisces Category:English individuals Category:Pure-bloods Category:Keepers Category:1900s births Category:1990s deaths Category:Slytherin Quidditch Team Category:Cypress wands Category:Dragon heartstring cores Category:Widowed individuals Category:Married individuals Category:Slug Club members Category:French speaking individuals Category:Mermish speaking individuals Category:German speaking individuals Category:20th century individuals Category:Individuals from Wiltshire Category:House of Bulstrode descendants Category:Descendants of Salazar Slytherin Category:Blackmere Cemetery